Star Trek XI (2008) Christmas Day

[Omniblast]

02.27.2007

Christmas Day 2008 Release for "Star Trek XI"

J.J. ABRAMS TO DIRECT STAR TREK FEATURE FILM FOR PARAMOUNT PICTURES
IN THEATERS CHRISTMAS DAY 2008

HOLLYWOOD, CA, February 26, 2007 — "Star Trek," one of the most popular and successful franchises in the history of movies and television, returns to the big screen under the creative vision of J.J. Abrams, the force behind "Lost," "Alias" and "Mission Impossible III" for Paramount Pictures.

The team behind the film will include Alex Kurtzman & Roberto Orci ("Mission Impossible III") who wrote the screenplay and will executive produce with Bryan Burk. JJ Abrams and "Lost" co-creator Damon Lindelof will produce. The film will begin shooting this fall for a Christmas Day 2008 release.

One of the most popular film and television franchises of all time, "Star Trek" has encompassed 726 total episodes for television in six different series, beginning with the original 1966-1969 series created by Gene Roddenberry. The 10 "Star Trek" films have grossed in excess of $1 billion at the worldwide box office. The original characters have been named among the 50 greatest TV characters of all time and the Enterprise has lent its name to two proposed spacecraft.

"If there's something I'm dying to see, it's the brilliance and optimism of Roddenberry's world brought back to the big screen," said Abrams. "Alex and Bob wrote an amazing script that embraces and respects Trek canon, but charts its own course. Our goal is to make a picture for everyone — life-long fans and the uninitiated. Needless to say, I am honored and excited to be part of this next chapter of Star Trek."

Brad Grey, chairman and CEO, Paramount Pictures, said, "We could not be more thrilled to be back in business with J.J. Abrams. The revival of the 'Star Trek' franchise is an important part of Paramount's turnaround."

About Paramount Pictures

Paramount Pictures Corporation (PPC), a global company that produces and distributes filmed entertainment, is a unit of Viacom (NYSE: VIA, VIA.B), a leading entertainment content company with prominent and respected brands including Paramount Pictures and DreamWorks. The company's labels include Paramount Pictures, Paramount Vantage, Paramount Classics, DreamWorks, MTV Films and Nickelodeon Movies. PPC operations also include Paramount Digital Entertainment, Paramount Home Entertainment, Paramount Pictures International, Paramount Licensing Inc., Paramount Studios, and Worldwide Television Distribution.

Fact Sheet

"Star Trek" is one of the most popular film and television franchises of all time:

• 726 total episodes for television spanning six television series
• Original series, created by Gene Roddenberry, aired on NBC from 1966-1969
• 10 movies, grossing in total over $1 billion at the worldwide box office
• Hundreds of novels
• $3.5 billion in consumer products
• 3 million visitors of Las Vegas's "Star Trek: The Experience" since 1998
• Over 60 interactive software products since 1991; games in production for current and next generation game platforms

J.J. Abrams is a talent widely admired by audiences and critics alike:

• Winner of two Emmy Awards for "Lost"
• 17 million viewers each week for "Lost"; a top-ten show
• Hailed by the New York Times as "one of the most exhilarating storytellers in television"
• Director of "Mission: Impossible III"
• Creator of "Alias" and "Felicity"

"Star Trek" has influenced the culture:

• NASA's first test shuttle was named "Enterprise"
• The first commercial passenger carrier into space, Virgin Galactic, has announced that the first spacecraft of the line will be named V.S.S. Enterprise
• An episode of the original "Star Trek" featured television's first interracial kiss
• Spock, portrayed by Leonard Nimoy, was named one of TV's "50 Greatest Characters Ever" by TV Guide

Discuss. Cannon? not another prequel...

[Jei]

Re: Star Trek XI (2008) Christmas Day

If it's fun.... But without Spok, I dunno.

[Malevolent]

Re: Star Trek XI (2008) Christmas Day

I'd see Fantasic Four: Rise of the silver surfer before this...not so much of a trekie...But still enjoyable to watch.

[Shadowneko]

Re: Star Trek XI (2008) Christmas Day

who knows? I kept saying the should try to do a DS9 movie next XD

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Star Trek XI (2008) Christmas Day

If I recall correctly, the movie is supposed to be about Kirk and Spock and take place between thier days in Starfleet Academy and their assignment to the Enterprise.

So yeah, younger actors for Kirk and Spock in a prequel. Still with such iconic characters you know there will be some very tight casting so Shatner and Nimoy's take on the characters are preserved.

The better new is the J.J. Abrahms guy has reportedly taken helm of the series and while there's no current TV series in the works, Rick Berman has thankfully left Star Trek.

The writers had been covering for his blatant thefts of Babylon 5 and Farscape plots for far too long anyway. DS9 at the very least was able to address that problem with strong characters and the Next Generation setting as a backdrop, but Enterprise just tried too hard to pull from other shows.

I'd really love to see another Next Gen universe Trek movie, though without most of the Voyager cast. Aside from First Contact, there hasn't been another Next Gen Trek that did the series justice.

[raidenn]

Re: Star Trek XI (2008) Christmas Day

Bet we'll see Kirk without his shirt off near the ending of the movie...

Also expect some unknown Ensign or Ensigns to die...

[Mhurron]

Re: Star Trek XI (2008) Christmas Day

They really just need to put Star Trek on the shelf and let it rest for a moment.

This is yet another outing by Paramount to attempt to make money off of what they hope are stupid fans by creating something that ignores all that came before it.

Yes it's supposed to be a prequel with at least Kirk, Spock and McCoy during their first meetings at Startfleet academy, however from previous stories:

Kirk graduated 2254
Spock graduated Graduated 2253, but was a cadet assigned to the Enterprise from 2252 on
McCoy never graduated the Academy, he went to med school and was commissioned after practicing privately.

[Akashimo]

Re: Star Trek XI (2008) Christmas Day

Honestly, I don't really see a good reason for them to do prequals the way they are. Enterpise itself was a failure and I'm not liking the idea to follow this idea for the big screen. First Contact and Generation were the best from TNG while Nemesis and Insurrection weren't all mind catching to remember(actually had to look up these 2 cause I couldn't remember their names@.@ ). First Contact had to be the most repeated movie on TV out of all 4 recent ones for TNG aswell. If anything, really would be nice to see a VOY or DS9 or some strange, yet very ST combination of those series for the next movie. Or how about more into how and why the borg came to be outside of fan speculation. And inclued plenty of 7 of 9 scenes щ(ﾟДﾟщ) (*´Д`) Then again, thats just my two dilithium crystals. I'm a fan not a director.

[Raydeus]

Re: Star Trek XI (2008) Christmas Day

Since I'm a TNG/DS9 kinda guy I don't know what to think about this movie.

One thing is certain in my mind though, Enterprise was the worst series and it wasn't at all because of the cast, but rather about the incredibly dumb writting.

Bakula had the presence to make a great captain but the writting killed his character. Seriously, this is the captain that made it all happen, the hero who made the federation possible, in short, Archer had the potential to be THE Captain.

Such a waste really pisses me off.

Which makes me be very skeptical about this whole prequel thing.



Also, I agree with Kitty, another movie in the TNG/DS9 period would be a good thing to watch, but I just wish they stopped treating ST movies like crappy 2hr+ special episodes (and at least included all the deleted scenes from the movies in the DVD (BD!) version).


(Although Nemesis' Enterprise + 2 Valdores VS the Scimitar fight rocked )

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Star Trek XI (2008) Christmas Day

Kirk graduated 2254
Spock graduated Graduated 2253, but was a cadet assigned to the Enterprise from 2252 on
McCoy never graduated the Academy, he went to med school and was commissioned after practicing privately.

A story could easily be written around it. I think it fair to believe placing a fresh, new guy in charge will force them to take the writing and universe of the story very seriously. I mean, its not like they put Uwe Boll or Joel Shumaker in charge here.

Berman became a hack writer on par with those hacks. He was out of touch. I mean, its pretty bad when you have Brent Spiner writing himself out of the mythos (granted he's a bit old to be Data now, but the Hollywood makeup chair works wonders). Berman even pissed off Patrick Stewart, lied about Stewart's interests in reprising the Picard role.

[Akashimo]

Re: Star Trek XI (2008) Christmas Day

S
One thing is certain in my mind though, Enterprise was the worst series and it wasn't at all because of the cast, but rather about the incredibly dumb writting.
. . .
but I just wish they stopped treating ST movies like crappy 2hr+ special episodes (and at least included all the deleted scenes from the movies in the DVD (BD!) version).
(Although Nemesis' Enterprise + 2 Valdores VS the Scimitar fight rocked )

I stopped watching ENT after like the fifth episode just cause of the writing. Even the opening theme turned me away from it x.x
Though Enterprise-E looks way sweet ^.^
Lets see a 3 hour ST movie for a change! >_>; More indepth, more with writers from TNG, DS9, VOY, even cannon/non-cannon novel writers, vid-game writers and swift through threads about any of the series from all forumns by a google search. Come on, Paramount should be dishing out all the stops for ST, and to make up for ENT failure(having been cancelled). <.<; we need something to look insanely forward too without the thoughts of "prequal" that makes us think ENT.

[Caspian]

Re: Star Trek XI (2008) Christmas Day

Can't say I ever watched an episode of Enterprise, but supposedly it got pretty good in its last season, but by that point it was already in the grave and it had been decided to end the series. When I was a kid I really liked TNG and Voyager to a lesser extent. I'll still watch it occasionally, but I have to agree they need to shelf the entire universe for a while and quit trying to make a quick buck off of it.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Star Trek XI (2008) Christmas Day

I thought the cast and character concepts for Enterprise were solid, its just the writing and the way it was forced into the ST timeline was totally stupid. First Contact bridged the void to the first series, we got to see how humans made contact with the Vulcans and know the Federation and starfleet grew from there.

The Enterprise comes, "Let's beam down and wear baseball caps and jumpsuits."

Right. How does that explain the very 60s fashion sense of the orginal series? Besides the fact the original series was on television back then.

Well, OK, Whorf never really explained where the Klingon forhead ridges came from in "Trials and Tribblations" ("My people do not speak of it.") But still, when did all the chicks get issued the miniskirts? When did that become Startfleet regulation?

[Caspian]

Re: Star Trek XI (2008) Christmas Day

Well, OK, Whorf never really explained where the Klingon forhead ridges came from in "Trials and Tribblations" ("My people do not speak of it.")

Lol, I recall reading about that whole thing. Roddenberry explained it by saying the Klingons from TOS were the Eastern Klingons and those in all other series were the Western Klingons.

[Omgwtfbbqkitten]

Re: Star Trek XI (2008) Christmas Day

Lol, I recall reading about that whole thing. Roddenberry explained it by saying the Klingons from TOS were the Eastern Klingons and those in all other series were the Western Klingons.

Yeah, between the two anniversery episodes, the DS9 was the best of them, it was one of my favorite Star Trek episodes ("Trouble with Tribbles," "Cause and Effect" and "City on the Edge of Forever" are the others) even if they heavily Forrest Gumped it by inserting characters into the old scenes.